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swarmishstrangers · 1 month

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Your blog, fics and headcanons always cheer me up! Your art is so neat too. Ive been lurking around here for a bit when I feel like I need my crops watered. Question, can I get headcannon of mallek x reader where the reader is an artist? somehow was able to accept commissions while on Alternia? I feel like the vibe of them just silently drawing and him coding in the background is super cute. What do you think?

AUGRHGAA TYYY!!!! I'm glad you like the art, writing, and headcanons! I've also definitely had the thoughts of Mallek being with an s/o who works a lot on computers for digital art stuff, mainly cause it sounds peaceful af.

Okay, so! Artist is a pretty loose term that could apply to a lot of things, but you specify them drawing here, so I'll go over Mallek x reader, both of them being either a traditional artist or a digital artist.

Traditional Artist:

🎨Starting with the traditional artist! Dunno if any of you consider yourselves to be fairly clean but either way if you were to stay over at his hive a lot and for convenience's sake, leave some of your art stuff at his place..it only adds to the chaos that his hive, "damn girl you live like this?" Idk! I just imagine all sorts of physical stuff traditional artist's use. Different types of paint and paintbrushes, charcoal, watercolors, colored pencils, paper, canvases, etc. Your art stuff adds a whole other thing to look at in his hive and honestly? He's here for it. He thinks art is cool. I mean..he can do tattoos, so of course he'd have some appreciation for a s/o who does artsy stuff. He also like those moments where he finds you just covered in your art supplies. Charcoal all over your arms and even smudged on your face for when you couldn't fight a itch and scratched at it, your hands and fingers smudged with paint or oil pastels...he just finds it incredibly charming.

🎨Oh also on the subject of paint uhh. May or may not be something you're comfortable with using considering that paint on Alternia is made from the blood of trolls. Depends whether or not you can get over that and just pretend it isn't to cope lmao. If you can just. Don't ask Amisia and Chahut about how getting the supplies for your paint went!

🎨Mallek would find it incredibly relaxing to listen to while he's fucking around with his husktops and many monitors. Normally he's one to either sit in quiet with nothing to play or maybe he'll have his playlist quietly playing whatever music or other things to listen to while he works on projects or contact people. Not to say it isn't still quiet while you both do your own things, but that's just the thing. It's quiet, not silent. Mallek finds he works the best when he knows that there's life going on around him. The sounds of his hands rapidly typing on his keyboard, the whirring of his husktop, sometimes you can hear him speak to someone that he's calling. You just further add on with your sounds of living, the sound of pencil sketching onto paper or canvas, the louder or softer sounds of you using oil pastels or charcoal, papers being moved, the adjusting of a canvas. It's all very comfortable to you both.

🎨You're each other's background sounds.

Digital Artist:

🖋️Being a digital artist is also so cool to Mallek, why wouldn't it be? It's tech shit! He can also help you try and traverse the different Alternian art programs. It's pretty new to him too since all he usually uses is the Alternian equivalent to Microsoft paint..and it's not super serious, just doodles, sketches, and shitposts stuff to destress. You got yourself a husktop, Amisia was jumping at the chance to help you look for digital art supplies (such as a tablet and stuff), and Mallek helped you get a hold of art programs for you to try out and decide what you like to use as your primary programs.

🖋️They're pretty much the same as Earth art programs in terms of it's functions. Though of course their interfaces can be different from program to program. Not everything works as it does on Earth? Certain shortcuts or tool locations are moved around or changed but it's pretty easy to figure out if you're experienced in digital art. And if you're stuck or can't figure something out your cool tech savvy matesprit can help you out. Mallek has his moments where he takes a break from what he's working on briefly to watch you draw...he always has to stifle a laugh when he sees you're absolutely struggling over there to do line art, having to undo do your stroke like 50 times before you get it. Like the previous one? He thinks it's cute and charming.

🖋️While you don't add a lot of new things to look at it in his hive, as you're working with more tech, it's still just as nice to listen to in the background he thinks. He can hear your fingers type out messages to friends or clients you're working with, the sound of your pen stroking against the tablet face, your mouse clicking here and then. There may not be as many sounds, but he finds it just as comforting, he likes to listen to the life around him after all.

Commissions:

As for the commission portion, thought it would be fun to get into this separately after talking about the respective art types! Being commissioned as an alien on the planet is certainly. Interesting. Which can be taken positively or otherwise.

Being an alien is your selling point to a lot of trolls online. It's where you got a huge chunk of your followers! Sure, they're very split on genuinely believing you are a real alien and those who think this is some kind of roleplay account or something but follow out of interest. Your commissions gather more interest from those who want a drawing from an alien! Real or not. Lots of odd are fun interactions.

For a traditional artist you could go the route of just, scanning your picture and posting it onto your socials and tag the trolls (or post it to the troll client privately). If you offer a shipement of the physical original drawing Mallek can help you out with getting a drone to drop it off for you so you don't have to go on a wild goose chase to find the troll client in this great wide troll world.

#mallek adalov #mallek adalov x reader #hiveswap #hiveswap friendsim #swarms-asks

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frostycatblr-fandom-files · 9 months

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"Creative" Miniseries

Warnings and Information: Because some of these get suggestive, we're gonna say Minors DNI.

I went down a list of creative hobbies at random, so some of these may not necessarily "fit" our 501st boys in blue. This is more a creative writing exercise than a serious list of headcanons.

If I miss someone from a certain unit, or you want to see so-and-so with a different creative hobby than the one I went with at random, let me know and I can do another part just for them. It doesn't have to be in the form of a request, but you're welcome to make one (it'll be easier to keep track of that way/guarantee I'll see it)!

Captain Rex

If his cyare was a photographer, he keeps their photos on the inside of his chestplate, anywhere really, but the most important one is over his heart. They don't stay very nice for long due to friction, but that's okay. He keeps extra copies and dutifully replaces them when he gets a spare moment. He started doing this after Umbara. The photo he always, always keeps over his heart is of him taking care of his brothers. He doesn't know why you snapped that photo of him stepping off the gunship, one arm tucked around an injured, unpainted Shiny and the other free hand patting someone on the back. But there's something about the way he looked to you behind the camera that made you take the picture. It's the picture that came after it, though… A delicious and sultry little snapshot of you posing suggestively with his helmet. That one, he keeps very, very well hidden.

Tup

If his cyare was a jeweler/beader, he proudly boasts all the experimental jewelry. On more than one occasion he wishes he had his ears pierced, but he knows it'll just end badly if he ever has to take his helmet off quickly for any reason. You made a hair-tie for him once as a sort of compromise. It was made of a dark leather cord and the odd tear-drop shaped bead kicking around in your box of materials that hung so beautifully, delicately, from the cord; nestled between two spherical beads on either side. It was more of a sea glass blue than the proud navy of the 501st, but it looked nice against his hair all the same. He used to wear it around his wrist when he slept. He's not sure when he lost it. But it was his favorite thing you'd made for him. So when you make him a replacement, something similar that he can keep around his neck this time, he makes a great effort not to lose this one.

Jesse

If his cyare had the patience for a needle and thread, he finds secret details added to his blacks and his other fabric wear in embroidery floss. Miniaturized star charts. An animal or a flower he told you about from his last campaign. Short jokes when you had the time to meticulously plot out each letter to make them all legible. Strings of coordinates. Kamino. Your home planet. Where you first met. Where you had your first… ahem, "flight" together (or nearly did). The next place you wanted to go on a date. Jesse ends up getting a lot of cogs stitched into his belongings, usually with a note that reads "If you can find all the icons of the Republic I've hidden, we get to do whatever you want the next time you have shore leave. There are 16 cogs. You have 12 standard hours to find them all. Good luck, ARC trooper~" and Jesse always finds them all.

Dogma

He counts himself lucky his cyare delights in drawing him so much. Portrait studies in all sorts of mediums. "I have something new I want to try! Will you model for me, please?" Watercolor. Oil pastel. Gouache. Pencil. Charcoals. Colored pencils. Ink. Heck, even crayon. You take such care to capture every little detail of his face, his tattoo. It was dependent on the medium, but sometimes the details of his tattoo were so crisp, it was like looking himself in the mirror. You've drawn him up in his armor a few times, but you find the impersonal plastoid so… "blasé" (which had been an odd choice to express your disinterest). You'd much rather be drawing him. His face. Just all of him posed in anything and everything he wore (or didn't) while looking so disciplined and compliant for you. You've even hinted you'd love to do some… anatomical study sessions with him, whenever he thinks he's comfortable with the idea.

Fives

He counts himself very lucky he didn't get himself thrown out of his cyare's pottery studio the first time he wandered in and found them in the middle of throwing at the wheel. Building a vase to replace yet another decoration that had been ruined in a bout of roughhousing by pulling up and pushing in the lump of clay in your hands. "Hah. You sure know how to work your hands and fingers. Bet you have really-" and he'd been hasty to shut his mouth with the gentle ticking of one of your brows in a go on, I dare you sort of fashion. All his worries were disarmed with a simple laugh when you said he was welcome to watch you work, but you'd prefer to have a little warning next time before he came barging in. The clay moved so fluidly, so effortlessly in your hands as you built beautifully balanced vases and designed intricate pitchers and teapots for the Jedi Temple, Fives suspected you could throw in your sleep. And, oh yes, you certainly had expert control of your fingers whenever you promised him a more "private demonstration".

Echo

He thinks his cyare has the voice of an angel. They sing. They can croon, or warble, and they can get somber and bluesy. It's all beautiful to Echo. Suddenly that song he was sick to death of on the radio goes from barely tolerable to beautiful, and almost hauntingly so. His cyare could take an upbeat ditty popular on the dancefloor of 79's and turn it into something romantic and heartfelt by slowing down the tempo, and drawing out the words just the right amount. And you could do the opposite, too. He's almost positive you could take a funeral dirge meant to be sung quickly under one's breath while they hastily buried the dead in their armor could become so soulful and twice as meaningful. Your voice is like magic to Echo, and it soothes him to hear you sing as you wander about the house.

Hardcase

He's always had a bit of a hard time sleeping thanks to the leak in his growth jar that made him hyperactive. His brothers have made more threats to tape or tie him down into his bunk than he can count. So his cyare, clever thing that they are, comes up with something so simple, Kix is kicking himself for all these sleep inducers he could have saved himself had Hardcase started using this sooner. He loves the dirty jokes he can make about his cyare's hobby as a crocheter. "They're a hooker in their spare time! And they've got a whole room full of WIPs and chains, too! I get to help if I promise to behave." It's right about the point that he brings up all the various types of yarns and threads and everything in every color under the sun that they've collected from all over the galaxy that people realize Hardcase is talking about how many blankets, dish cloths and table runners (whatever the kriff those are) his darling's made. "Why the kriff did you have to make it all sound so kinky, Hardcase? You're telling me they just made you a blanket?" It's not just a blanket to Hardcase. It's far more comfortable than those scratchy GAR sheets. It's soft, and it's warm, and because this was something that cannot be made by machine ("Those articles on the Holonet are full of it! Crochet CAN NOT be replicated by machine!") and instead, with an amount of patience that would make his head spin, just for him, Hardcase finds himself falling asleep and staying asleep much easier than before.

Kix

He's almost glad that he complained about a lackluster medical infographic he'd been asked to distribute to his brothers in front of his cyare. "That's… that's the worst visual artwork they could have possibly chosen on how to perform the Heimlich Maneuver." You had taken one peek over his shoulder as you removed the shoulder bell that bears the shattered red cross on it and agreed. "That's absolutely awful. And their layout is atrocious; who the kriff designed this? Not someone in the GAR, I hope. I can do better than that." You fired up your graphic design software and spent the next several hours tweaking with the design of a new handout. No silly novelty fonts that made it hard to distinguish an "N" from an "M". Concise bullet points of medical information that was easy to understand. You consulted him to make sure it was up to snuff after several hours, and Kix could have collapsed in his euphoria when you asked him what he thought of an additional handout you'd thought of and had started working on. You remembered his complaint about this new medical drama going around the galaxy and how it was full of false information that a lot of his brothers had taken to heart. "Cyare, you're a lifesaver!" It makes you laugh between his kisses when you remind him that you're only a graphic designer, and he's the medic.

[Masterlist] [Bad Batch + Wolfpack Edition] [212th Edition]

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mithclearwell · 8 months

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Just out of curiouse, do you have any tips for beginner artists? I would really appreciate one

Of course! ^-^ I'm more than happy to help!

Let's see...without the ability to have a conversation, I'm not sure where exactly you are in skill level, so I guess I'll start with some basic quality-of-life tips.

General:

You don't have to go to college to get good at art. I didn't go to art school!

Watch youtube videos from good artists, or those you admire!

What kind of art do you ultimately want to produce? This isn't an instance of "I can only pick one thing", it's more like...each type of art requires different skills, and if you know ahead of time what you want to do FIRST, you can narrow down what you have to learn.

learn proper sketching and use of circles and other shapes to build the figure, don't just jump in making the final lines right away! It's not a "cheat", it's proper technique. It's "caring about your work".

Same for references. Google up some images of what you want to draw and look at them while you draw your own picture. It's not only okay, it's what professionals do. You need to train your EYE as well as your hand.

It's okay to mimic styles you like! But be aware that each artist may stretch or squish or exaggerate proportions to fit what they personally like to see. This is why it's IMPERATIVE that you learn realism alongside any manga style you want to try. Once you learn where the eyes sit on the face, the different facial planes and what bones they relate to, and different sizes and builds for the face, you can then manga them up to any style you want!

For real paper:

Use a protector sheet, or wear a glove on your drawing hand. You want to make sure you don't get graphite or colored pencil on the side of your hand, and then smear it on your drawing. Placing a piece of paper under your hand will protect your work!

Don't touch your art with your fingertips. Fingertips have oil and gunk on them, and will smudge your drawing. (If you're working with charcoal, this could work to your advantage! But you're probably not using charcoal. It's messy and usually limited to college art students.)

Get the right tools! You can buy a small eraser set in the art section of Wal-Mart for like $3 -- it has a polymer eraser, a smaller white eraser, and the all-important KNEADED ERASER. This thing can be squished and torn apart and it'll pick up graphite like a champ! Do not bother with hard pink erasers, they're trash.

You don't need special paper to learn. I used to draw on the backs of my dad's extra math photocopy papers. Copy paper is smooth and not too fussy and I like it. "Sketch pads" usually have a rougher grain, and I hate the way the paper feels. Also there's a lot of ugly white spots when you try to shade or use colored pencils. Only use that if you're keeping a cute little book or using pastel crayons or something (or it's all you have). Don't fuss over it too much while you're learning. It won't make much difference until you're ready to specialize!

Blending stumps are cool and even pros use them.

Get a small electric pencil sharpener. They're less than $10 at places like Dollar General, and those stores are literally everywhere.

If you get a manual sharpener in an "art set", that's fine, too, but it hurts my hand to do it manually. I like the ones that have little covers.

It DOES matter what kind of ink pen you use. Gel pens will smear. Most markers are washable, and you better believe they will run at the first hint of moisture. India Ink also smears and runs with water. I recommend Sakura Micron pens, Zig Mangaka pens, or my favorite --- the Kuretaki Bimoji felt tip brush pen. You can get all that on Amazon, and it's like $6. I got the superfine tip.

LET YOUR INK DRY BEFORE YOU PUT MARKERS OR WATERCOLOR OR ANYTHING AT ALL OVER IT. It takes maybe 20 minutes.

If you don't plan to color it, you CAN draw with a ball point pen and it'll look just fine.

Do a tiny little water streak test with any markers you plan to use with watercolor. Just brush a tiny bit of water over the mark after it's dry to see if it bleeds. I use that bleed to my advantage sometimes, but you just gotta be aware of what's what.

Digital:

You can buy a small, cheap tablet from HUION for less than $40. MAKE THE INVESTMENT. IT'S WORTH IT.

Clip Studio Paint is EXCELLENT. Well worth the $50-$60 price tag. I think you can try it before you buy it, too. It gives you access to the Asset Store -- which is the single greatest artistic sharing tool I have EVER seen, and I've used SAI for ...probably a decade... I've used dozens of custom brushes and even made my own, and I just can't even believe what is available with CSP. Do yourself a favor and get it.

"But I can't use a tablet! I can't look at a screen while I draw!" Yes you can. YES you can. Yes you can, if you'll just try it. "but I tried once and it didn't work" Well YEAH, if you only tried a handful of times, OF COURSE it didn't work. Do you know what practice is? HUION screen tablets are over $300!!!!! Do you have that kind of disposable income lyin around? (plz donate some to me if you do lololjk =u=; )

Start saving a folder full of refs.

Ask people to tell you what to draw. Let them request something for free. This makes you draw things you wouldn't normally draw, and there is INCREDIBLE value in stepping outside of your comfort zone. You will level up in no time.

Whew...that covers most of the basics, I think. If you have something specific you want me to go into more detail on, please let me know! I love helping ;w;

#mithart #tips #art help #asks

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aranock · 2 months

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What do use to create digital art? Also, have you messed around with traditional art at all? Love seeing your art throughout your videos!

I currently mostly use Clip Studio Paint with my Veikk drawing tablet. My favourite brush is a cel animation brush that was free with a bunch of other brushes, and for colouring a brush called butter chalk created by my friend and fellow video essayist and digital artist Chipmunkuchan. For more painterly stuff including backgrounds I often use two different "painting" style brushes that were from that same pack, I can't remember where I downloaded it from tbh. Before I had a drawing tablet I did all my digital work in Inkscape with a keyboard and mouse, yes really, that includes all the animation in Matrix is Intrinsically Trans and Queer Relativity. Yes I drew all those frames with a mouse 💀.

Depending on what you mean by "traditional art", yes I have. I have a lot of experience with drawing in pen and graphite, more recently with charcoal and pastels. I also have done a lot of acrylic painting, though have not had the opportunity to work with oil paints. I have done a tiny amount of watercolour, a bit of sculpting, a decent amount of miniatures and prop work. I played piano consistently from age 5 until 17 and I used to write music, though I do not have any of my old sheet music that I wrote and have not practiced in an unfortunate amount of time. I hope to get back into it soon.

My most recent tattoo started as a series of graphite sketches before doing a final version in digital when I was happy with my ability to do the rose. I actually post some of my sketches and nondigital work in my patreon discord and some other discords I am in, maybe I should post them here as well?

#aranock #art #digital art

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notcatherinemorland · 2 months

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one of the most difficult things about getting back into art again is not romanticising my own skill gap.

like, finally, after 5 1/2 years of thinking these it was destroyed and shat on by rats, we found my portfolio of my old Big Serious Art Works. Most of it is in there, minus a sketchbook and some old final pieces (annoying!) but what is genuinely shocking to me is how good some of it is. I remember hating some of those pieces viscerally. I remember nearly crying to my friends about dropping out of art gcse over an a3 charcoal illustration of onions.... and it nearly made me cry over how good it was for a 13-year-old. Over how good it would be if i produced it now. That's not even to mention how it feels to see my two favourite sketches I ever did (ink sketch figure drawing and a charcoal cathedral window, for posterity).

What is fascinating to me now its that this is a legitimately good portfolio. Detailed sketchbooks explaining my processes; extremely varied material use and pieces at the end; composition and style and ideas are abundant. It is positively surreal to walk back through the fucking verdant greenhouse of my youthful training and then look at my last two sketchbooks... which are dull as dishwater. It's just soft and scared little portraits over and over and over again.

But the thing is: all my work is soft and scared. All of it, from the sketchbook of copic ciao-coloured magical girl anime designs I drew at 12 to the oil pastel picture of a washing machine I've been trying to start for the last 2 days. The reason my old work makes such a lush impression is because it was for academia - I had teachers forcing my hand into new every single week. These same teachers offering suggestions and guidance at every stage of the work, who genuinely cared about my making art, not just my getting good marks. It is very hard to flip through my recent books (oh, how I am proud I get to say books, plural) and see such a dearth of discipline. I knew I found it very hard, psychologically, to challenge myself, but I didn't think it was this.... obvious, in a way. I didn't realise how I had been showing my hands with the things they've created.

Anyway: there's no satisfying answer to this. I cannot afford to look back on my old works and think I was talented - it was 5 years of dedicated, cultivated, nurtured skills. I cannot afford to look back on my recent works and think of them as silly, bland, and uninspired. At the same time, I cannot afford to not challenge myself. My art will be soft and scared whatever I do - I may as well make it good.

#me meta #tumblr diary my old friend i have come to chat with your void again #i start a 5 week course of figure drawing next week & i am so excited for it i can't even explain!!!!!!#the skill gap between my eyes and my hand is fucking cavernous but like. doesn't mean i should stop!!!#it just means i gotta get all the shit out the way so i can develop them in tandem again #a level art shaped me for better or worse lmaoooo

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vt-scribbles · 7 months

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Y'know I know ask games are for people to, y'know, send in asks. But I don't see people often just. Fill it all out themselves. Fuck it I'll help out the shy people.

SO ASK GAME BELOW 'READMORE' LET'S GO

1. Art programs you have but don't use: MS Paint, Blender, I used to have WAY more like this one painting [like actual paint] program.

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even): Left is easiest, Right is in the middle, and forward is the hardest of those three for me.

3. What ideas come from when you were little: I was fascinated by G/T from like. 3 years old. I blame Super Mario Land 2 LMAO

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw: Handheld, perspective, monsters/creatures, and massive scale

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself: Uhhh probably about 50/50? A lot of things I draw are spoilers, shitposts, and other study art I don't bother sharing.

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it): Not that I can think of? My art doesn't get analyzed super often. I think people think I study anime more than I do.

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate: Charcoal, watercolors, sculpture, oil pastels, acrylic, copic markers

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in: Originally I was going to make an AMV with my two characters, Nonny and Felicia, to the song 'shut up and dance with me'. These two aren't active OCs anymore, and the project was WAY too ambitious for my skill level 9 years ago lmao.

9. What are your file name conventions: 1: Name of song I listened to on loop while drawing. 2: An inside joke. 3: Literal rep of what's on the canvas like 'Hema doodles Aug 2023'.

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw: Body suits, capes, scarves

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what: TONS. My fave lyrical music, videogame soundtracks, sometimes just ambiance if I'm overwhelmed. Usually tho it's the same song on loop till I get the inspired piece out of my system.

12. Easiest part of body to draw: Eyes!

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing: A lot of NSFW artists who I won't list here LMAO. I don't go to that school, but their art skills are top-notch.

14. Any favorite motifs: Mirrors, doppelgangers, leaving 1 eye absent for emotional effect, feathers/wings, falling, sinking into water, eyes, dark palettes with bright accents/light sources, glowing eyes, flowing hair, size difference/scale, fucked up version of self vs real version

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth): Starbucks, home, parks if I'm feelin spicy, anywhere I take my tablet for the day.

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing: A lot of my niche/kink stuff tends to get pretty dredge-y for me. I may be good at it, but it's not where my passion lies. That's in animation, fantasy, dramatic stuff, storytelling, etc.

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what: Water or Snapple for the drink, milk if it's bedtime so I can settle down, and then usually the snacks are just whatever my lunch is for the day since we don't have a table.

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken: Not many! Less than $100 I'd say. I'm very careful with my supplies, and I don't believe I've ever broken a tablet. The worst I've done was I busted 1 or 2 cheap tablet pens with stupidity.

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.): Definitely nature. Tree trunks and swirls therein, flowers, grass.

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy: Humans! Not that it's an 'everyone' thing, I just run in some furry circles where human artists are a rarity. Eyes, too. Some people find expressions rly hard.

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways: Uhhh man damn, I don't follow a lot of art styles that aren't something I took inspo from? But I guess Wolf Walkers is my biggest one.

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any: Sooometimes I stretch, but I don't do it nearly often enough.

23. Do you use different layer modes: Yep! My most common ones are Multiply, Glow Dodge, Add, Add Glow, Overlay, Pin Light, and Color.

24. Do your references include stock images: Absolutely! Reference is important.

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by: Not much! Most of my inspirations are pretty clear-cut and strong. Avatar, SU, Disney, Dreamworks, FMA, some Warner Brothers' movies, etc.

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended: God, so, the G/T gif of mine that makes the rounds a lot? The one where VT finds someone small and it's their POV and he helps them and puts them in his shirt pocket??? Most people were completely normal about that post. But then there's one chuckle-head who was calling it pocket-vore, and I wanted to scream. I even chastised them like 'hey uh, no. That's not what this is.' and they argued back with 'well it's up to the eye of the beholder more than your opinion.' and I was like 'UH NO. I MADE THIS. MY OPINION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR WEIRD ONE???' I've also RAAARELY had people call my characters underaged when they're all well over 21, so those are always gross/wild LMAO.

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with: Sometimes! I usually do an anatomy study, brush stroke warm-ups, or just doodle something personal first.

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines): I think Multi Animator Projects [MAPS] would count here! I was part of Starclan's Chosen, Change Your Mind [Brambleclaw], Levitating, Family of Me [fallenleaves], Goosebumps Warriors MAP, Pay No Mind MEP, LA Devotee [never finished], White Rabbit, and Fear Garden! Among others :>

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically: Not much! Pretty much everything I love inspires me artistically. I guess some anime styles?

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated: Pretty much any of my animations. But I only feel that way cuz they take THE MOST dedication and work time. Also kiiiinda my writing? But a lot of people have trouble getting people to respond to literature, so.

#Long Post #VT Text #Ask Games

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ashsomethingart · 2 years

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In Which I Properly Introduce Myself

Good Morrning Tumblrverse Updated 4/15/2024: My name is Ash Around the internet I am known pretty much ubiquitously as Ash Something Art I am currently active on all of the following platforms:

My wordpress website

Facebook

Patreon

Redbubble

Bluesky

Instagram

DeviantArt

Youtube

TikTok (Backup is here)

Discord (@AshSomethingArt)

Creatively

Ello

Fetlife

I am a 35 year old multidisciplinary artist. I’m Genderfluid AMAB, and I live my life as a lifestyle clown. But I’m here on tumblr to focus on who I am as an artist, so let’s dig into that. There is always some confusion when I say I’m a multidisciplinary artist, as it’s not an incredibly common term, but to clear that up out of the gate, it means I don’t specialize in just a single type of art, but work my absolute ass off to create awesome work in a wide variety of styles and media. There’s a lot of push for artists to have a single recognizable style and to only work in a single medium; But this isn’t for the artist’s benefit. I’ve always looked at that as being the same mindset that people have that makes guys tell their girlfriends they’re “Too much” or to tone themselves down. People want artists to have a single style so that artist’s work can fit inside of an easily digestible and recognizable box, where just a glance can tell them which artist did that work. And I hate that. I hate being limited. I do art because I love art, and if I want to do a realistic charcoal work one day then a digital anime style piece the next I’m going to do that. What styles do I use, you ask? That’s a hard question to answer in-depth because I have practiced a wide range of media (Charcoal, graphite, pastels, acrylic, oil and watercolor paints, photoshop, illustrator, pen and inks, colored pencils, Prismacolor markers, lithographic printing, screen printing, woodcarving, leathercrafting, sculpture, photography and photo-editing), and multiple consistent styles with each medium I use. But to simplify and clarify it, I can at least list the styles I am happily ready to market myself in as a professional at any given time because I have spent over ten years doing each of them, and these styles are my own at this point; -Anime and Manga Style - My own Anime style is a bit more on the realistic side; I grew up referencing a lot of Seinen manga, pulp magazine, Death n=Note and stuff like Air Gear, as well as a bunch of Manhwa like Sun Ken Rock and King of Hell. That said, I’ve also practiced (a lot) replicating the big anime and manga’s styles from when I was growing up; Naruto, Bleach, Dragon Ball, One Piece, Nana/Paradise Kiss, etc. I obviously prefer working in the style I developed myself but I have options with the anime and manga styles. -Western/American Comic Style - When I’m drawing in my own comic style, I would say it most closely resembles Michael Turner, my favorite artist from Image Comics, who created Aspen Comics and later worked with both Marvel and DC. I grew up inspired by his work and that led to my work being similarly inspired by him. I spent a lot of time in the comic convention circuit in LA meeting artists and being exposed to their work, and while I was a bit of a fan of Marvel and DC growing up, those titles didn’t come close to how obsessive I was with Image/Top Cow, Aspen Comics, Dark Horse and Heavy Metal magazine. As an adult I’m very aware of how problematic Heavy Metal is, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of my first major artistic inspirations when I came across it as a kid and didn’t know any better; And themes aside, the art was REALLY good; Between Hajime Sorayama, Frank Frazetta, Luis Royo, and a slew of others who did work for them, the visually artistic quality of the magazine was amazing. -Semirealism/Realism - I don’t want to say that this is where I started as an artist, because I I remember correctly I started drawing with anime characters back when I was like 9. However by the time I was 13 I was already trying to draw realistic portraits in pencil, and by the time I was in high school I was already able to do it. I don’t really have a lot of specific inspirations for this style, as honestly it’s the style that came most naturally to me. I have always done my fastest, best work in straight up graphite or charcoal; And I’ve been able to expand that work to a slew of other media, leaving charcoal as my favorite of them all. Given the time, I can do (and have done) massive 18x24″ charcoal portraits and pinups that look almost like a photo (although I do prefer to make the work obviously drawn when I can).

-Cartoon Style - Being a realism artist makes cartoon styles the hardest of the styles out there for me; It’s about simplifying. Simplify simplify simplify. My own cartoon style is a mix of anime/manga chibi styles and things like Jhonen Vasquez and Tim Burton’s art, as well as a few different web comics that I grew up with. I can’t say my cartoon work looks like any specific cartoon artist, but those are at least my go-to inspirations when I’m working in the style. If at all possible I do prefer to avoid this style. -Character/Pinup Style - Unlike the rest of the styles, this one is completely a creation of my own. It mixes semi-realistic shading with a linework style inspired by both anime and American comics, but wouldn’t necessarily fit into either of those brackets. It’s simpler than semi-realism, but a lot more realistic than cartoon, and I’m looking forward to creating a lot of work in this style very soon. -Tattoo Styles - I will preface this with the fact that I have no experience doing tattoos on peoples’ bodies. However, I have had a TON of commissions where people wanted me to design their tattoos, and so I had to study them in-depth so I knew what the tattoo artists would need when the client took my art to them. I am confident in the American traditional style, Contemporary, Cartoon, and Black and Grey styles. -Graphic Design - Originally, I started learning graphic design for my own purposes; How to brand and market myself. Create my own logos, etc. I figured, if I already have the artistic abilities why not do it all on my own? Before I realized it, I was doing paid work for anything from logo and t-shirt graphics, to album art, magazine covers, web banners and profile pictures. I can do both corporate and illustrative graphic design, but I prefer illustrative. -Nagel Style Reproductions - To be clear, this is reproducing his style, not reproducing his work. Nagel was one of my very first formative artistic inspirations. About ten years ago, I decided to do one piece referencing his work as just a style study, and then people wanted me to do portraits of them in the style, which eventually led to me now having a portfolio of about 30 pieces that are various portraits, pinups, etc, in his style. I never expected or wanted to be known for that, as it started as just a practice thing for me, but Nagel is so iconic that it became one of my most demanded styles from prospective clients. So there you go. Eight solid styles that I work in. I don’t mean to ramble, but stopping me from infodumping when I get started is really hard to do, especially if I’m the one who needs to stop himself. In the past, I haven’t been the best at labelling my artwork with the exact style I’m using, and so there’s some confusion as to which I’m using on specific pieces among my current fanbase, but I do hope to rectify that with a new labelling process that I’ve started the last couple weeks for clarification. I unfortunately will not be going back and labelling work that has already been published online, but hopefully you all will start to see the distinctions as I publish more.

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my-one-true-l · 2 years

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Okay I’ve hit like a major writers block and it’s messing with me. I have the whole of JQ planned out but absolutely no thought to put it to paper, it’s driving me mental I swear.

Any advice? Cause I would love to be dragged out of this pit.

In other news, my art has been thriving but nothing worthy of posting yet. I’ve gone back to traditional pencil to paper but I’ve also gone to Oil pastels. I loved using these in art class in highschool, the one media I’ve gotten along with nicely (probably because my inner child just screams CRAYONS). Have you any favourite art media?

Also! Do you like any musicals, and do you have any suggestions? My personal favourite is Six because of my major history obsession, but also Anastasia for the same reason -such a shame it’s no longer running in the UK. I’m trying to plan a nice date going into London but I have no clue what musical to take my boyfriend to, if any. I know he’d go for anything, but I wanted to know if anything really stuck out to you in general.

How was your weekend? Relaxing I’m hoping. I managed to grow something random on the rose bush in my garden. It’s quite small and looks quite like a singular tiny Peony. Regardless I think it’s adorable, i’m going to try and draw it and hopefully that turns out well. How has your plants been going?

Have an amazing week, much love! <3

Hello Ace!

Writers' block can be really frustrating. I tend to walk away from my writing and do something else for a while, kind of like a reset of sorts, but that can also become a distraction I suppose lol.

I'm so interested to see what you've been drawing. 😊 As for medium I like, I really love paints, especially acrylic and watercolors. Charcoal can be lovely, too. Oil pastels are wonderful to work with, tho I don't tend to use them often. I can see why you like them so much! They're so much fun and give such nice results!

Musicals...hmm. I love The Phantom of the Opera and that is probably my favorite musical. There's one called Loch Ness that I've really been wanting to see, but I haven't a clue where it's running ATM if at all. Do you know what shows are playing in London?

The tiny rose sounds so cute! I think it would make a perfect subject to draw! My plants, for the most part, are insane lol, though some of them dislike this heat! Much like all the things I love, my gardens are wild and chaotic and beautiful lol!

Much love to you as well, Dear Ace!!!😊💜

#sweet people #letters with friends #friends #ace-13 #ask

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art-h · 1 year

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The Formulation of Technique

For this module I was having a complete dearth of ideas for how to decide on a technique. I spoke to Duncan for advice and we came up with doing small drawings of the same object in different mediums and seeing what fits to shake off my mental block. Like the old cliche of trying everything and seeing what sticks. To follow a lose thread from the Knolling exercise I chose my enamel travel mug as the object I would draw.

Before starting the degree course I was already quite versed in how to use charcoal so as a comfort exercise I made the above sketch. It definitely helped ease me into the exercise to get the creative juices flowing. I felt strongly though by its completion that I should try to use a different medium to push myself away from comfort zones.

Having used oil pastels in my Taxonomy of Drawing pieces of Men an Tol and Boscawen-un recently, I reached for them next. I had not used them much before hand so making marks with them definitely eased me out of my comfort. I enjoy using them and definitely want to master them in time, possibly starting during this module. I think using charcoal alongside as a shading method definitely helps the colours pop.

Before starting university I had never used dip pens for drawing. I purchased a small set of inks and different heads for varying effects. I was incredibly surprised by the outcome! It was a pleasure to use hatching for shading and using multiple lines for texture and depth.

From this I chose to go multi-modal for this project as I feel strongly that this year is very much an exploratory adventure and to try to focus on any one thing when I haven’t tried everything would be difficult to accomplish without distraction.

#falmouthify #dip pen #charcoal #oil pastles #ideas for ideas #mediums #guidance

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poppy-lifedrawing · 2 years

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11th October -

As part of our warm up, Aldous posed for 3 minutes, 8 times, in each one we were to consider a different element of drawing, such as line: shadow, volume, curves and angles. This forced me to consider how I placed my marks more carefully and branch out from my usual way of observing the figure.

Couple of examples -

We tried to take these ideas into the rest of the class, with several 24 minute poses done in charcoal. I was finding it difficult to work quickly and in proportion so adopted a new way of working, initially using bolder lines instead of trying to be so precise and delicate - rather I waited until I had the frame of the figure before adding detail. Aldous explained how as we are working on a drawing, we go from trying to draw the scene, to looking for what’s in the scene you’re drawing; meaning that we adapt what we draw to how we see it. This was evident through everyone’s work, since the focus varied on an individual basis, despite having the same subject model. Application of tone and use of the charcoal itself also massively varied, this encouraged me to consider using different means of mark making, especially in the background (since I tend to neglect it).

We then played around with oil pastels and pencil at the end of the session, I found this a fun way of working but was unhappy with the final outcome of my piece, too much pencils was added and could not be removed. However, it allowed me to experiment with colour, texture and mixed media in an alternative style, the application of turpentine proving effective on top of oil pastels to create a wish-washy effect.

Examples of other peoples work I found inspiring -

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jaijaiwilkinsonslifedrawingblog · 2 years

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Tuesday 4th October 2022

Initial Thoughts: I was nervous yet excited for this lesson as it was my first ever life drawing lesson I've had. I came into the class without any idea of what mediums we were going to use and what we were going to draw.

At the beginning I practiced the basics - drawing straight lines and simple shapes to feel confident in our proportions for the pieces I did today. Throughout this I was practicing drawing interface and trying to react to aspects of the environment within out drawings. One thing I was taught was to see what shapes there were within the model and space around her, and just draw it. I would then check to see if I needed to do any alterations.

We then practiced doing angles, focusing on the centre of the model's body. I found these beginning exercises very useful as a complete beginner and I did feel more confident to start my first proper real-life drawings.

For the first set of drawing, I used charcoal. With is exercise, I had to draw different things that touched each other. This is why I did the majority of the model as the robe she was wearing touched different aspects of her (knee, arm, wrist, neckline). I also did her glasses as it was in contact with her face, and I drew her ponytail as is touched her neck.

For this task, I had to focus on the shadows. I mostly fixated on the shadow casted on the curtains behind the model, but I did briefly touch on the shadowing on the model herself.

This was to focus on tone, I did not do enough variations of this one.

This charcoal piece was better in terms of tone as well as filling in the whole page.

I then changed me medium to drawing ink which I felt easier to use as it was less messy, and I could control the concentration of the ink. Additionally, I found it easier to create a more variation in tone, but I this this is the case as I use ink more than charcoal. Therefore, I find it easier and 'safe' to use. This is a habit I want to get rid of not only in life drawing but in my other subjects within this course.

Turning to painting the model, I used acrylic paint which created a more abstract style due to using 3 random colours. With all the paintings, I tried experimenting different brush strokes with different sized brushes. For example, with this painting I used long strokes mostly going in a downward motion. I also splattered paint my flicking my brush with my finger to create freckles along the body.

I dabbed my brush to create a rough and splattered effect. I did not like the look of it as it made it less able to see the curves and general formation of the body. However, I do think that with a smaller brush, I can use this technique for shading. On the left of the background, I just experimented on short and sharp brush strokes whereas on the right, I used a scrunched-up piece of tissue to dab paint on the yellow. I think that the dabbing with tissue could come in handy to make a more textured appearance.

With my final painting (and in my opinion my best piece today) I used mixed media of acrylic paint, oil pastels and chalk. I think adding some more colour helped the painting to have more dimension compared to the other two. Additionally, the blue chalk was a good option to use due to it being a complementary colour to orange - bought out the orange more against the dominating red colour. One major issue of this painting is how the robe draping off her legs are the same colour of her skin - it is difficult to distinguish them apart.

Final Thoughts: I don't know if this is a good attempt for a first timer at life drawing. I do think I could have done better in terms of studying the model more to get a more accurate drawing even when it is a quick sketch. However, I feel like I will get better after a few sessions of life drawing. Another this I need to work on is my attitudes towards my work - I tend to get frustrated and impatient with myself if something doesn't look perfect. This is something I experienced a lot in this lesson and is something I need to change.

Somethings I need to remember from today's lesson is trying to draw from the feet to the head and take into account the different relationships different body parts have with each other and with the environment.

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hellysdesigns · 2 years

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Week 3 ~ Quick Sketches (Timed, Continuous lines and Blind Contour)

I was challenged to complete 5 timed drawings with time stamps of 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 minutes. The drawings were based on my mother posing for me in a sitting position from a photograph her partner sent from the beach. I drew a calming facial expression because this was how she presented in the beach environment. I used an ordinary pencil for this task as timed drawings are quite taxing for me, and I find I work faster using this medium. I began with the 10- minute drawing, my least favourite of the five as I struggled with the detail on it and found the time went really slow. I felt I worked more creatively and quicker on the drawings in a lesser time as I work better under pressure as I don’t have much time to worry about it.

It was much easier doing the continuous line drawings as I used more creative materials such as charcoal, ink, crayon, oil and chalk pastels. I prefer colouring my drawings rather than using black as it is more reflective of my artistic style and me as a person. This was a quicker more exciting technique to use.

Blind contour drawings were my favourite of all the tasks because I felt my most creative when using paint as a technique. I used the same materials as for the continuous line drawings adding paint to make them more effective. I liked the idea of overlapping the line contours with a different colour.

#artwork #illustration #student #design #drawings #art style

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dilxcs · 3 years

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🔖 writings and such - haikyuu headcanon

what art mediums the haikyuu characters are good at

in continuation to this haikyuu headcanon of mine in which i will sort the same characters mentioned from that post into different art mediums i think they’re decent at

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oil paint

one of the oldest art medium. oil paints are based of oil-based paints (like the name suggests) and/or turpentine/linseed oil. these kind of paintings take a long ass time to dry

akaashi, kita, ennoshita and aran

watercolor

is a painting medium some find hard to deal with, cause once the paint is on the paper, there is very little u could do. the paint is diluted with a lot of water and it let’s u paint with a translucent kind of effect to it

oikawa, kunimi, asahi, kita and semi

acrylic paint

is one of the newest painting medium. it dries more quickly, is very versatile and durable. acrylic paints are also less messy and u can scrape the paint of when it’s dry

akaashi, sakusa, kita, tsukishima and aran

gouache

gouache is made of the same binders and pigments as watercolours and has the addition of blanc fixe, which gives the paint its coverage. this is also the difference with watercolours. the opacity also makes it easier to make corrections and you can paint with light colours over dark colours

akaashi, kita, semi, asahi and suna

graphite drawing

are similar to normal pencils, but they come with different intensity levels. when using graphite pencils, it’s important to know the difference between H’s and B’s pencils. H’s are the lightest, whereas B’s are the darkest

suna, aran, atsumu, tendou, ennoshita and daishou

pen and pencil

very much self explanatory and it’s one of the art mediums many of us are familiar with and first think of regarding art mediums

suna, sakusa, akaashi, atsumu, semi, tendou, ennoshita and daishou

colored pencil

colored pencils are made of pigment bound in wax (sometimes with a little oil too) and encased in wood. colors can be blended and applied lightly or boldly. a great medium to use if you like to draw but you also enjoy working with colour

sakusa, semi, atsumu and daishou

pastels

pastels come in two forms : oil pastels and chalk pastels (similar to charcoal, but they come in all colors). pastels are ideal for blending and layering. the tip, cut and side can all be used to create different textures.

oikawa, asahi, tsukishima, atsumu and daishou

charcoal

charcoals are somewhat like graphite in terms of usage, but they are far more darker in color and can’t be erased easily. it also requires more hand control. there are two kind or charcoals : the soft kind for blending and the hard kind for sketching

suna, aran, atsumu, tendou, ennoshita and daishou

markers

markers are affordable, convenient, don’t make a mess, work well with other media and allow you to apply bold color quickly and easily. markers can also blend smoothly, making them capable of photorealism, abstraction, and everything in between

sakusa, semi, tsukishima, atsumu, konoha and tendou

digital art

digital art is a fairly new form of art and only really began in the 1990s, with the advent of the Internet. as the term suggests, it is about art that is made digitally. so that actually means all art that is made on or by the computer. this is of course quite broad, it ranges from: images created or conceived by a computer, art made by means of algorithms, drawings made by means of a program on the computer, 3D sculptures and installations or videos

sakusa, aran, tendou, ennoshita and kunimi

carving

cutting out pieces of material, usually wood or stone, until you create the desired shape

atsumu, daishou, aran, ennoshita, tendou and konoha

collages

are art pieces you make by combining various materials, like paper, cloth, newspaper clippings, and everyday objects to create unique artwork

oikawa, tsukishima, asahi, konoha and kunimi

art journaling

represents a way to enrich your record of different events, memories, and thoughts by adding the artistic touch to it. u can use different items, like postcards, concert tickets, washi tape, decorative paper, recycled items or pictures from magazines

akaashi, sakusa, kita, asahi, kunimi, ennoshita and konoha

documentary photography

aims to capture significant moments in history or everyday life that will faithfully depict an era

suna, tsukishima, aran, tendou, ennoshita

analog photography

is taking photographs with an analogue camera using a 35 mm film that is sensitive to light. you can, of course, also shoot in other formats. a film runs out after a while. you have to think carefully before you click. this mainly challenges you to look more critically at that one photo opportunity.

akaashi, sakusa, kita, semi and ennoshita

digital photography

appeared with the rise of digital technology, in which artists can create, edit, and retouch their work with the help of digital cameras

suna, oikawa, aran, kunimi, tendou and konoha

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beinmybonnet · 4 years

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hmmm ok, joe/nicky "colour"

(classic seeing colour soulmates au BECAUSE ALL THE TROPES FEEL NEW WHEN YOU’VE GOT IMMORTALS)

- you see the world in black and white until the day you touch your soulmate. when they die, you lose the colour they brought to your life -

“Oh, that’s beautiful.”

Nile comes up on Joe’s right shoulder, mug of tea cupped between her palms.

“Thank you.” He shuffles over so she can sit beside him on the bench, moving aside his paints. She’s studying his work intently.

“The shades here are perfect,” she tells him, eyes darting between the painting and the view before them, “it’s like the shadows are lifting off the canvas. What colours have you used?”

Joe’s smile is wide, and he flips his paintbrush to gesture with the end. “Here, whites and greys for the houses at the bottom of the hill. Here,” he points the handle higher, “yellows with pink, and then some red here, just as the sun rose.”

“So, that would be orange right here? Pale though?” she points at the right splash of colour and Joe turns, brow lifting in surprise. “Art History with a focus on colour differentials,” she says proudly. “My professor said I had the best monochromatic eye he’d ever seen.”

Joe promptly slides the paints across the bench and picks his spare canvas up off the grass. “Join me?”

“Really?” Nile grins, bright and eager as he hands her a brush. She hovers over the paints for a moment, chewing her lip between her teeth. Her eyes rove determinedly over the unlabelled paints and the sky, before she plucks up a purple pot. Joe has to resist the urge to wrap his arm round her shoulders.

Back when Joe had first leaned to draw, colour had meant nothing to him. He’d had chalks and charcoals as a child and had lost hours to sweeping strokes across paving stones. He’d learned to differentiate between subtle shadows and muted tones, blending new greys between his fingertips to smudge over his clothing.

Black, white and the thousand shades between them were comfortable and sure. Colour was just, unnecessary. As he grew, he was gifted graphite and dark inks and a roll of rough parchment was always tucked against his hip. He could recreate everything his eye could see and his mind could form with the two fundamentals in his hands. All his most treasured early memories remain this way; his mother’s shining ebony hair, the smoky shade of her skin. The bright white of his father’s teeth as he spun her around in front of their home.

But there’s still no denying that colour changed everything. Colour that had come into his world with all the subtlety of the man at its source. Suddenly his life had burst into bold tints and fierce hues; endless possibilities for him to explore with paints and oils and pastels. Nine hundred years to experiment with the vibrancy of the world around him.

He and Nile reach for the blue together and smile.

Nicky’s got his eye pressed tight to his scope when everything fades.

He’s dialling left, settling his weight into his hips and then a curtain of heavy grey drops across his view. He rears back rubbing at his eyes, trying to force the colours back.

“Shit… just- Book, hold up!” Andy’s voice crackles out of the earpiece Nicky’s placed on the rooftop beside him. He scrambles to jam it back in.

“Andy-”

“Take the shot Nicky.” There’s shouting coming from below and Andy is swearing vehemently. “I’ve got him, just take the shot!”

He lurches back into position trying to clear his mind. It’s all wrong though, the shadows too dark and his depth perception is ruined -he’ll have to start all over. The dilution of his vision is making his heart thump erratically, and he has to count breaths in his head to keep himself still enough to reline up the shot.

Seconds later, the target steps out of the blackness and Nicky fires. The bullet cracks off the window frame, striking home at a cruel angle. He swears under his breath; it wasn’t clean, but he doesn’t care – the job’s done. He just needs to find Joe.

He takes the stairs at a speed that leaves his knees numb. At the extraction point, the van is already moving away as the door slides open. Nicky hurls his gear in and leaps after it. He gets the briefest glimpse of eyes too dark, and thick pewter stains across a torso before the door is slammed shut and he’s hauling Joe into his arms. They collide with a thump and Nicky quickly tucks his face against the grey skin of Joe’s neck with his eyes clenched shut. A hand burrows under the edge of his tactical gear until he feels the warmth at the small of his back.

Nicky pulls back to open his eyes and relief has him sagging further into the arms around him. Warm tawny skin shines against the dark khaki of Joe’s vest. He drags his mouth up the rich line of his throat, reluctant to break contact.

“Sorry.” Joe’s expression is chagrined when he lifts his head. “Got pinned down.”

There’s a smear of blood at the corner of Joe’s mouth, the newly crimson stain brash and mocking. Nicky rubs at it with a gloved thumb until the skin is clean and then presses his mouth gratefully to his favourite colour.

“A lilac ribbon in her hair. First colour I ever saw.”

The slight waver in his voice makes Nile wonder if she’s over-stepped again, if she’s put her foot in some unknown no-go zone and she opens her mouth to apologise. But Booker’s smiling, and that in itself is rare enough that Nile waits.

“It happened in a crowd. Must have been a hundred people in the square, easily…” his smile is widening. “God, it would have been so easy to have missed her. Soldiers were separating people, everyone was running and pushing and we just… brushed hands.”

Booker lifts his hand from his lap and turns it over slowly. “The back of her hand touched mine as she ran past. That was all.” He touches that spot, a glance of his finger. “I looked back, and her ribbon was lilac. But it was so busy, I lost sight of her in the rush.”

“But you found her again?” Nile has her head propped on her hands, trying not to sound too eager. Booker laughs gruffly.

“She found me. Came back for me.” He’s gripping his own hand tightly now, nails biting at the skin. “Lilac ribbon, hair like honey. Everything else came after that.”

“She sounds lovely.”

Booker looks up at her properly, and Nile’s acutely aware that whilst now they see the world in the same shades, it wasn’t always that way.

His voice is soft. “She was.”

Joe barely has time to shout before his world is plunged back into negatives, colour leaching from his vision. He’s scrambling, sliding in the pool of viscous grey he knows is blood as it spreads around Nicky’s skull.

He moves to cup Nicky’s face and can’t bear it. The sharp edge of his cheekbone throws dark shadows over his too pale face. Flecks and streaks of black over his skin; blood or dust or ash, Joe can’t tell anymore and the panic is rising in his throat. He can’t look at Nicky’s colourless eyes – he can’t- he’ll carry the sight with him too long.

He tears his head away, his own eyes clenched shut – but before he has time to pray, to plead, Nicky is gasping beneath him. The breath Joe releases is sticky and harsh, and he’s curling forward in his relief. Their hands collide quickly against each other’s forearms in an instinctive, accustomed clasp, and colours start seeping back immediately. The first to return are the shades of blue; bright aegean tones bursting in Nicky’s wide eyes, chased into existence by familiar notes of green. The weight lifts off Joe’s chest and for a moment he just breathes, air that tastes sweet and smooth as his other senses adjust to the disruption.

Then Nicky’s rolling. “Let’s go, Andy.”

They’re stood close enough to see the tremble in Andy’s arm as she reaches for Quynh’s face for the first time in over four hundred years.

Joe is frozen at his side, and Nicky’s breath is jammed somewhere in the base of his throat. He can’t believe this is actually happening.

Andy’s hand falters just shy of Quynh’s cheek with a ragged sound, fingers hovering. She opens her mouth to speak but Quynh reaches up and clamps the hand desperately to her face with her own. They shudder so violently Nicky wonders for a moment if the ground has physically quaked.

He knows the sensation well; that fierce swoop in the stomach. Like he’s stepped into free fall as the world saturates around him at Joe’s first touch. When they can reach each other quickly after a death, colour comes back in slow, precious increments; the shining browns of Joe’s eyes, or the dusky pink that rises in the shell of his ear. The longest they’ve gone after a death was four days. Four days in an east Indian jungle trapped in wet, translucent tones of black and white, the frustration building until he’d screamed at the sky. When he’d finally gotten his hands on Joe, grasping desperately at his bared shoulders, colour returning was an immediate detonation that had left his whole body throbbing for hours.

Nicky can’t even begin to imagine what Andy and Quynh feel in this moment.

They go down as one, limbs folding together as they collapse into the dirt. Clutching at each other as their worlds transform. Quynh has Andy’s face trapped between her own palms now and is sobbing, laughing, trying to pull her closer. Andy’s tears are silent, but steady. Her eyes flitting over Quynh’s face in awe while she runs trembling fingertips over rosy cheeks she can see.

Joe is squeezing his hand so tightly his fingers have gone numb, but the rush of joy in Nicky’s chest is golden and fierce. To stop himself moving forwards to pull Quynh into his own arms, he steps behind Joe and tugs him back, arms looping firmly around his middle.

“See? We are meant to find each other,” he whispers. Joe chuckles wetly against him.

On the ground, Quynh is smiling through her tears. “You’re beautiful Andromache,”

Andy hums hoarsely and runs her hands over Quynh’s arms, coming up to cradle her collar through the thick fabric of her coat. Her fingers rub at the material and Nicky knows the scarlet shade must be iridescent to her eyes. Andy lifts a thumb to Quynh’s lower lip.

“Red always was your colour.”

adriana i’m so sorry this took so long. i physically couldn’t stop it getting longer and longer and then i got really stuck and it was a whole mess.

#the old guard #the old guard fic #joe x nicky #andy x quynh #soulmates au #userkayla #usermarwan #usercacau #tuserceleste #userbones #userlyde #usershan #tusermj #idk what happened here #can't write 5 sentences like a normal person #mine #prompt

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brooklynmuseum · 3 years

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Closing out National Poetry Month, our Spring Interns paired some of their favorite poems with works from our collection. We hope you enjoy!

— Jeffrey Alexander Lopez, Curatorial Intern, American Art & Arts of the Americas

Image: Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, 1724-1770). Page From Haru no Nishiki, 1771. Color woodblock print on paper. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Peter P. Pessutti, 83.190.1

from Citizen: “Some years there exists a wanting to escape...” [Excerpt] By Claudia Rankine

I they he she we you turn only to discover the encounter

to be alien to this place.

Wait.

The patience is in the living. Time opens out to you.

The opening, between you and you, occupied, zoned for an encounter,

given the histories of you and you—

And always, who is this you?

The start of you, each day, a presence already—

Hey you—

— Halle Smith, Digital Collections Intern Catherine Green (American, born 1952). [Untitled] (West Indian Day Parade), 1991. Chromogenic photograph, sheet. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the artist, 1991.58.2. © artist or artist's estate

Ode to Enchanted Light by Pablo Neruda

Under the trees light has dropped from the top of the sky, light like a green latticework of branches, shining on every leaf, drifting down like clean white sand.

A cicada sends its sawing song high into the empty air.

The world is a glass overflowing with water.

Consuelo Kanaga’s black and white photograph captures a dazzling, yet fleeting moment from everyday life. Three textured glasses cast shadows whose patterns are almost kaleidoscopic in effect. We can imagine Kanaga passing by her kitchen table, as she is brought to a halt to take a closer look at, and ultimately to photograph, the simple beauty generated by the play of light and everyday objects. The close-up scale of this image emulates the singularizing framing techniques deployed by Surrealist photographers, who also took parts of everyday life and blew them up in the photographic frame, thereby encouraging their viewers to look at life around us from a different angle. It is a way of saying: Here, take a closer look. Viewing the world with wonder, along with the joy that this act brings, are encapsulated in Pablo Neruda’s poem Ode to Enchanted Light. The speaker observes the way light passes through trees and creates enchanting patterns. He not only observes, but feels the beauty in the simple details of life, from the way light falls from the sky, to the sheen of leaves, to the buzzing of cicadas. Approaching life through such a hopeful lens evokes a glass-half-full perspective. In fact, the speaker is so hopeful that he believes “The world is/a glass overflowing/with water.” I think Kanaga would have felt the same way.

— Kirk Testa, Curatorial Intern, Photography Consuelo Kanaga (American, 1894-1978). [Untitled] (Glasses and Reflections). Gelatin silver photograph. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Wallace B. Putnam from the Estate of Consuelo Kanaga, 82.65.25

Easter Wings By George Herbert

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,

Though foolishly he lost the same,

Decaying more and more,

Till he became

Most poore:

With thee

O let me rise

As larks, harmoniously,

And sing this day thy victories:

Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did beginne

And still with sicknesses and shame.

Thou didst so punish sinne,

That I became

Most thinne.

With thee

Let me combine,

And feel thy victorie:

For, if I imp my wing on thine,

Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

Easter Wings by George Herbet and Martin Bach’s flower vase from the Brooklyn Museum’s Decorative Arts collection reveal the interrelationship between form and function. In Easter Wings, Herbert strategically varies the line length to create an image that enhances the meaning of the poem; when you turn the poem on its side, it resembles the wings of a bird, of which are symbolic of the atonement of Jesus Christ. In doing so, the author is not only telling us his message, but he is showing it visually as well. Similarly, the vase takes the visual form of its function. Its floral design amplifies the meaning of the object, as the vase is meant to hold flowers. In both instances, we see how aesthetic properties of a work echo the meaning and function of the work itself.

— Amy Zavecz Martin Bach (American, 1862-1921). Vase, ca. 1905. Opalescent glass. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Alfred Zoebisch, 59.143.16. Creative Commons-BY

I am the Earth (Watashi wa chikyu) [Excerpt] by Kiyoko Nagase, Translated by Takako Lento

I am warm, moist soil I am a single supple stalk I draw my life all the way up into corollas of wild berries on the roadside

I am amazed at a breast of water welling to flow into the inlet of a muddy rice paddy I am amazed at myself being hot steam blowing fire and sulfur up from the bottom of the great ocean, deep indigo. I am amazed at the crimson blood flow covering the earth’s surface in human shape; I am amazed that it swells as the tides ebb and flow, and gushes out monthly under distant invisible gravity … I am the earth. I live there, and I am the very same earth.

In the four billionth year I have come to know the eternal cold moon, my other self, my hetero being, then, for the first time, I am amazed that I am warm mud.

The vivid imagery conjured up by Kiyoko Nagase’s poem is beautifully visualized by Emmi Whitehorse’s painting. The emphasis on deep Earth tones and abstract corporeality in both the poem and the painting really creates an intense metaphysical link between the environment and the self.

— Amanda Raquel Dorval, Archives Intern Emmi Whitehorse (Navajo, born 1957). Fire Weed, 1998. Chalk, graphite, pastel and oil on paper mounted on canvas. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Hinrich Peiper and Dorothee Peiper-Riegraf in honor of Emmi Whitehorse, 2006.49. © artist or artist's estate

Seventh Circle of Earth by Ocean Vuong

On April 27, 2011, a gay couple, Michael Humphrey and Clayton Capshaw, was murdered by immolation in their home in Dallas, Texas.

Dallas Voice

________________________________________________________

As if my finger, / tracing your collarbone / behind closed doors, / was enough / to erase myself. To forget / we built this house knowing / it won’t last. How / does anyone stop / regret / without cutting / off his hands? / Another torch

streams through / the kitchen window, / another errant dove. / It’s funny. I always knew / I’d be warmest beside / my man. / But don’t laugh. Understand me / when I say I burn best / when crowned / with your scent: that earth-sweat / & Old Spice I seek out each night / the days

refuse me. / Our faces blackening / in the photographs along the wall. / Don’t laugh. Just tell me the story / again, / of the sparrows who flew from falling Rome, / their blazed wings. / How ruin nested inside each thimbled throat / & made it sing

until the notes threaded to this / smoke rising / from your nostrils. Speak— / until your voice is nothing / but the crackle / of charred

bones. But don’t laugh / when these walls collapse / & only sparks / not sparrows / fly out. / When they come / to sift through these cinders—& pluck my tongue, / this fisted rose, / charcoaled & choked / from your gone

mouth. / Each black petal / blasted / with what’s left / of our laughter. / Laughter ashed / to air / to honey to baby / darling, / look. Look how happy we are / to be no one / & still

American.

Ocean Vuong’s “Seventh Circle of Earth” has persisted as one of the great, affective moments of poetry in my life since I first heard Pádraig Ó Toama’s gorgeous reading and discussion of it on his podcast, Poetry Unbound. I decided to pair Vuong’s poem with Mary Coble’s Untitled 2 (from Note To Self) because both works are urgently immersive into the violence and experience of LGBTQ people in the U.S., and for how each work uses text and physicality to address presence, pain, and erasure. Vuong’s poem is actually footnoted to a quote from a news article about a gay couple murdered in Texas. The page is thus blank, absent of text. The reader has to sink below the main stage, the accepted space of word and story, to find the voices of this couple and the depth of their story’s tenderness, eroticism, and utter devastation. Coble’s piece foils the structure and effect of Seventh Circle of Earth by taking what was subverted by Vuong—text and the narrative of violence—wholly to the surface. Her photograph captures her own legs tattooed without ink with the names of LGBTQ individuals victimized by hate crimes. I cannot help but think of Franz Kafka’s short story “In the Penal Colony,” in which prisoners’ “sentences'' are inscribed by the needle of a “punishment apparatus” directly onto their bodies. I was struck by how the curator’s note for this photograph describes Coble’s artistic endeavor here as “harrowing.” The needle in Kafka’s short story is indeed called “The Harrow”. The noun harrow is an agricultural tool that combs plowed soil to break up clumps of earth and uproot weeds and clear imperfections. The verb to harrow means to plague, and in the story’s original German the verb for “harrow”, eggen, is also translated as “to torment”. Kafka and Coble conflate these definitions of “the harrow” in their respective works: they use a needled device, like the true noun definition, as an instrument of torment because of someone else’s idea of punishment and justice. Here, violence is brought to the surface, intimate in as much as we are brought right up to the artist’s skin and into the presence of her and her community’s pain. Together, one can see how each creator physicalizes their respective artistic space to tell the stories of LGBTQ people, of what is tender and harrowing, below the surface and written into the skin.

— Talia Abrahams, Provenance Intern, IHCPP Mary Coble (American, born 1978). Untitled 2 (from Note to Self), 2005. Inkjet print. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the artist, 2008.10. © artist or artist's estate

To my daughter Kakuya by Assata Shakur

I have shabby dreams for you of some vague freedom I have never known. Baby I don't want you hungry or thirsty or out in the cold. and I don't want the frost to kill your fruit before it ripens. I can see a sunny place Life exploding green. I can see your bright, bronze skin at ease with all the flowers and the centipedes. I can hear laughter, not grown from ridicule And words not prompted by ego or greed or jealousy. I see a world where hatred has been replaced by love. and ME replaced by WE And I can see a world replaced where you, building and exploring, strong and fulfilled, will understand. And go beyond my little shabby dreams.

This poem is featured in Assata Shakur’s memoir, Assata: An Autobiography. It details her hope for a better world that her daughter can grow up in. This poem is positioned in the book when Shakur is facing increasing prosecution as a result of her activism and affiliations with the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation army. Being written more than 30 years after this picture was taken, the poem summons me to think about the trauma that many Black women face and how much of that trauma gets passed down to their children. The black and white photo of a mother and daughter provides a nice visual to the poem. “The image of a Black mother and child sitting on their luggage reflects the little-discussed history of segregated transportation in the northern United States. Through the 1940s, Penn Station officials assigned Black travelers seats in Jim Crow cars on southbound trains” (Brooklyn Museum). The photograph of train passengers waiting outside of Manhattan’s Pennsylvania Station especially echoes the verse “I don’t want you hungry or thirsty or out in the cold.” The overall optimistic tone of Shakur’s poem alters our relationship to the image as we imagine the mother pictured above hoping for the exact same things

— Zaria W, Teen Programs intern Ruth Orkin (American, 1921-1985). Mother and Daughter at Penn Station, NYC, 1948. Gelatin silver photograph, sheet: 13 15/16 × 11 in. (35.4 × 27.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mary Engel, 2011.22.3. © artist or artist's estate

Crunch. By Kailyn Gibson

I retch as a mass of sinew lies between my lips. The sensation is unbearable. Fortunately, the jar of flies has gone missing again.

Slowly, surely, and yet never sure at all, the quiet of buzzing rings through the in-between.

It is a symphony wrought from blood and bone.

Saliva drips from bleeding, hungry gums, And the crunch of glass echoes the grinding of molars.

If I proffered a sanguine smile, would masticated shards look like teeth? Would they gleam just as prettily?

The flies ring, and the rot calls.

— Kailyn Gibson Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917). Portrait of a Man (Portrait d'homme), ca. 1866. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 21.112

Excerpt from Autobiography of Red A novel in verse by Anne Carson

7. If Helen’s reasons arose out of some remark Stesichoros made either it was a strong remark about Helen’s sexual misconduct (not to say its unsavory aftermath the Fall of Troy) or it was not.

8. If it was a strong remark about Helen’s sexual misconduct (not to say its unsavory aftermath the Fall of Troy) either this remark was a lie or it was not.

9. If it was not a lie either we are now in reverse and by continuing to reason in this way we are likely to arrive back at the beginning of the question of the blinding of Stesichoros or we are not.

10. If we are now in reverse and by continuing to reason in this way are likely to arrive back at the beginning of the question of the blinding of Stesichoros either we will go along without incident or we will meet Stesichoros on our way back.

11. If we meet Stesichoros on our way back either we will keep quiet or we will look him in the eye and ask him what he thinks of Helen.

12. If we look Stesichoros in the eye and ask him what he thinks of Helen either he will tell the truth or he will lie.

13. If Stesichoros lies either we will know at once that he is lying or we will be fooled because now that we are in reverse the whole landscape looks inside out.

This excerpt comes from Appendix C of Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red, a novel in verse. A translator and classicist herself, Carson mixes fact with fiction in her unconventional retelling of the myth of Geryon and Hercules, beginning with a roundabout introduction to the poet Stesichoros. Autobiography presents a captivating example of recent Queer projects that take up Classical material as their basis. A fascination with the Classical past has pervaded our modern conception of sexual identity politics, down to the very etymology of the word “lesbian.” In this fascination, I see the same desire to capture Classical imagery as cultural heritage which has also pervaded American museums, albeit with significantly different aims. The fresco pictured above comes to mind, which passed through many collectors and was even purchased by the museum before anyone pegged it as a modern piece—not an original Roman fresco. John D. Cooney, a 20th century curator of our Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art collection, wrote that “the unclad and somewhat winsome charms of the lady [probably] diverted objective glances.” Both in the case of the fresco and Carson’s novel, the “unclad and somewhat winsome charms” of the Classical past shape and reshape our understanding of history.

— Kira Houston, Curatorial Intern, Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art Modern, in the style of the Roman Period. Part of a Fresco, early 19th century C.E. Clay, paint. Brooklyn Museum, Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund, 11.30.

Late Fragment by Raymond Carver From A New Path to the Waterfall, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989.

And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.

— Shori Diedrick Brackens (American, born 1989). when no softness came, 2019. Cotton and acrylic yarn. Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by The LIFEWTR Fund at Frieze New York 2019, 2019.12. © artist or artist's estate

Jaguar By Francisco X. Alarcón

some say dicen que ahora I'm now almost estoy casi extinto extinct in this park por este parque but the people pero la gente who say this que dice esto don't know no sabe that by smelling que al oler the orchids las orquídeas in the trees en los árboles they're sensing están percibiendo the fragrance la fragancia of my chops de mis fauces that by hearing que al oír the rumblingc el retumbo of the waterfalls de los saltos

they're listening están escuchando to my ancestors' el gran rugido great roar de mis ancestros

that by observing que al observar the constellations las constelanciones of the night sky del firmamento

they're gazing están mirando at the star spots las motas de estrellas on my fur marcadas en mi piel that I am and que yo soy always will be y siempre seré the wild el indomable

untamed espíritu silvestre living spirit vivo de esta of this jungle jungla

While the author of the poem speaks about animals, their words can also speak on behalf of the erasure of indigenous peoples in South America. Much like the jaguar, indigenous traditions and culture are very important to life in South America. Despite their marginalization, Indigenous peoples throughout the Andes used coca leaves to help with the altitude. The use and cultivation of coca are criminalized throughout most of South America despite it being essential to indigenous cultures. This vessel was used to contain lime which would activate the coca leaves. Much like the jaguar, indigenous traditions are also faced with endangerment despite being woven into the fabric that is Latin America. Through the opposite man and woman figures, the vessel shows the duality that is important to the Quimbaya people which is still relevant to Colombians today.

Aunque el autor del poema habla sobre los animales, sus palabras también comunican el sentimiento común de la supresión de los indígenas en Suramérica. Con la mención del jaguar, se puede entender en el poema que la cultura y las tradiciones de las personas que son indígenas son sumamente importantes para la vida en Sudamérica. A pesar de su marginación, los indígenas en Los Andes utilizan la hoja de coca para ayudar en la altura de las montañas. El uso y el cultivo de la hoja de coca fue criminalizado (penalizado) a través de Sudamérica, aunque su uso para los indígenas era vital y esencial para su cultura. Este recipiente que se utiliza contiene limón lo que activa la hoja de la coca. Similarmente al jaguar, las tradiciones de los indígenas siempre estaban en peligro aunque estuvieran entrelazadas en las telas de lo que sería Latinoamérica. A través del hombre opuesto y las figuras de mujeres, el recipiente muestra la dualidad de lo que es importante para las personas que son Quimbaya, algo que todavía hoy es relevante para los Colombianos.

— Jeffrey Alexander Lopez, Curatorial Intern, American Art & Arts of the Americas Quimbaya. Poporo (Lime Container), 1-600 C.E. Tumbaga. Brooklyn Museum, Alfred W. Jenkins Fund, 35.507. Creative Commons-BY

#national poetry month #poetry #art #poems #art history #brooklyn museum #bkminterns

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